Last year, the Cape Verdean executive announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for technological development and support in the areas of "education, digital governance and entrepreneurship" with the North American technology giant.

The memorandum, signed in New York at the end of September, placed "focus on supporting the construction of a Center of Excellence in qualification and training in the areas of cybersecurity, privacy, Power Apps and Artificial Intelligence, and also on promoting the digital connectivity of schools, development of digital literacy, assistance in the implementation of digital infrastructures and platforms, and in the training and development of electronic government", according to a press release issued at the time.

According to Olavo Correia, who is also Minister of Finance and Business Development, Cape Verde already has "exceptional conditions for managing these companies and for creating opportunities for young Cape Verdeans" within the country, believing that the 'Techpark' "will be equal to a park in Europe or in the United States or in any other developed country".

"We will certainly make Cape Verde a digital economy and a digital nation", he stressed, arguing that the Government has made large investments for this purpose.

"Cape Verde has invested, only in our 'data center' technology park, which will operate this year, (...) 54 million dollars (50.6 million euros). We invested in the 'EllaLink' fiber optic submarine cable. We already have two cables and we are moving towards a third cable. We are also already investing in all the mooring of the submarine cable between the islands, modernizing with a new cable in terms of capacity in order to be able to move forward from the point of view of quality. We are also moving towards 5G", he listed.

In an interview with Lusa, Olava Correia also defended investment in human capital, and at various levels of education, to guarantee the country dedicated capacity for the digital economy.

"We are making large investments here, but many of them do not produce immediate results. It is necessary to sow and have the patience and persistence to then reap the rewards", he advocated.

Cape Verde also aims to achieve digital governance, wanting to reach, in 2026, around 65% of public services as digital services, and 80% by 2030, said the minister.

Questioned by Lusa about the fact that Cape Verde is competing with larger markets where technology parks are also being built, such as Dakar, Nigeria, Ghana, among others, Olavo Correia argued that it is a question of "perspective" and that in a technological world "there are no small countries and large countries".

"I don't think Cape Verde is a small market. When we look at the land territory, yes, but if we look at the maritime territory, Cape Verde is a great maritime nation. If we look at the world in a digital logic, there are no small countries or large countries, there are countries that dominate technologies and countries that do not dominate technologies", he pointed out.

The minister argued that if countries have a good governance framework, high-quality human capital and good infrastructure "they end up being great countries, because they are countries connected to the world", and "if there is internal capacity to produce for export", then Cape Verde will be "integrated into the global world".

"We are already starting to take important steps, but we have to continue to invest, especially in governance, in cybersecurity, but above all in talent. In Cape Verdean talent, young people and women who are in the country and in the diaspora, to be able to make the digital economy an accelerator of dynamics and development", he reinforced.

MYMM (MBA) // VM

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